A new study into the age old question of how flight first evolved in birds shows that from an early age chicks can innately right themselves in mid-air. It seems logical to suggest that the flapping flight is not seen in nature and therefore in tree-flight may be the most likely origin of flight in birds.

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Dudley noted that some scientists hypothesize that true powered flight originated in the theropod dinosaurs, the ancestors to birds, when they used symmetric wing flapping while running up an incline, a behavior known as wing-assisted incline running, or WAIR. WAIR proponents argue that the wings assist running by providing lift, like the spoiler on a race car, and that the ability to steer or maneuver is absent early in evolution.
Such activity has never been regularly observed in nature, however, and Dudley favors the scenario that flight developed in tree-dwelling animals falling and eventually evolving the ability to glide and fly.